McCann-Erickson Gives New Ikea Catalog a 'Vitamin Pill'

Ikea catalog fans are a pretty finicky bunch. The last time the furniture retailer
made what some might consider a slight "tweak" to the 61-year-old tome (in
2009, after 50 years of use it changed its iconic Futura typeface, to the more
computer-friendly "Verdana) consumers went ballistic. Now it makes an even
more ambitious leap with McCann-Erickson's makeover of the 211 million
circulation pub. In August, the retailer tapped the agency to revamp the famous
printed showroom and yesterday debuted a video introducing "A New Kind of
Catalogue." It highlights an accompanying digital offering that promises to
make its pages "come alive"--via an app introducing a variety of extended
content.

The retailer presented McCann with a very basic brief asking the agency to breathe
new life into the catalog, "basically one page talking about the fact that the
catalog needs a vitamin pill," said Ikea Head of Global Communications Lena
Simonsson Berge. "It was quite open, but one prerequisite was that we wanted
to keep the printed catalog as a base. Many other companies would have
started this exercise by doing a deep study on how much more efficient
this could be totally online, versus paper, but, typical Ikea, we like to do things
a bit backwards. We believe in something, and we go from there and see what
we could do about it."

Not that the catalog itself had huge problems. According to Ms. Berge, Ikea
had conducted focus groups and over the last two years saw just a slight
decrease in consumer interest for the catalog. "Of course, what has happened
throughout these years is the media landscape has changed, people's media
consumption behavior has changed," she said. "It takes so much more than it
did in the 1950s and even ten years ago, when it was still quite easy to stand
out from the junk mail and other advertising in your mailbox. But we don't want
to wait until things go bad, so we wanted to give it an injection, enliven it. It's
still a very powerful marketing tool, but we don't want to be just one of the
others. We want to stand out."

Life Extension
According to McCann Vice Chairman/Global Deputy Chief Creative Officer Andreas Dahlqvist, a key goal was to extend the life of the catalog in consumers' homes. Its average lifespan is
about two weeks, but with the digital offerings, content can be added and
updated on a regular basis, making the catalog relevant year-round.

The print pages tease the additional materials with a smartphone icon that
encourages shoppers to scan to see more. The app uses image recognition
software from Metaio, and not QR codes, which makes it convenient to add
further content to other pages in the future. With those, viewers may be alerted
to new content via billboard callouts, for example, said McCann Associate Creative Director Koen Malfait.

The agency had originally conceived more than 100 extended content ideas, but
the inaugural revamped catalog features about 43, produced in collaboration with Ikea in-house
agency Icom, with backend provided by EC Software. The digital extensions are
diverse, ranging from inspirational films like "I Love You, But" which shows how
couples with divergent home styling tastes can compromise, via Ikea. There's
also a feature that allows viewers to see the organizational solutions inside a
cabinet--which, in the catalog, features closed doors. Other ideas, not yet
realized, included staging live events like concerts or cooking shows within the
catalog's various rooms--which customers could enjoy via the app.

In a way, some might say that this new setup turns the Ikea catalog into a
potential media channel for the brand, but "it might be a little too much to say
it will become a media channel," said Ms. Berge. "We do have our website,
which is extremely important, but as far as I can see, the store itself will
remain the most important channel for Ikea. But when it comes to marketing
communication we want the catalog to be the spearhead for communication,
and now because of the idea McCann came up with to bring digital tools to the
catalog, that was a way to connect the catalog to the media ecosystem."

Three Pillar Makeover
The digital component is just one aspect of what is actually a three-pronged
catalog overhaul, which focused on innovation (the app), storytelling and
structure, said Mr. Dahlqvist.

To a casual browser, it might not seem as if much has changed about the
catalog's printed version--in fact, the 2013 edition features the very chair that
appeared on the first Ikea catalog that debuted in 1951--the "MK," now being
brought back as "Strandmom." But it too, got a significant overhaul. Whereas
previous versions were full of pages of Ikea rooms and products that may have
made it hard for customers to locate specific things, now, it's divvied up to
address a variety of browsing patterns.

The first section of the book "Life at Home" begins with the more familiar
"inspiration spreads" you'd find in previous versions. The agency noticed that
over the years, storytelling about the Ikea brand values--smart, simple
solutions to help improve people's lives--had lost its way, and it was important
to continue to communicate that with current and future customers. So within
this section is more content that plays out editorially, some, with an emotional
bent based on human insight, to others featuring concrete homemaking tips
--like covering a tired old dresser with new fabric, to give it a second life. "It's
coming back to, what do we know about people's lives at
home that we can tell stories about," said Mr. Malfait, who, along with fellow ACD Zack McDonald spent half a year "living in the woods" at Ikea's hometown of Elmhult producing the catalog at Icom. A second, more straightforward section "Furniture and Home Furnishings" gives a structured way
to view products in specific categories, for those shoppers "with a mission," said
Mr. Dahlqvist.

Coming Up
Outside of the catalog, McCann is also working on an overhaul of the retailer's
website, a second global assignment announced in November. "It's been more difficult to stand out when it comes to digital
media, so part of the brief was a wish to become more 'Ikea' on the web," said
Ms. Berke. "We started our website in kind of patchwork way in the '90s. We
were lacking a high level of creative execution and continuity so that's very
much what we want. When people talk about Ikea, they connect back to the
store--this big blue box with yellow Ikea letters. I think the stores are more
unique than the website; the store is the benchmark." Also, Ms. Berge says the site's user experience has to parallel brand values as well. "We want it to be more user friendly, smarter,
and connect to the Ikea identity of being clear and simple, functional," she
said.

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Ann-Christine Diaz

Ann-Christine Diaz is the Creativity Editor at Ad Age. She has been covering the creative world of advertising and marketing for more than a decade. Outside of the job, she can be found getting in touch with her own creativity.